BATON ROUGE — The sixth-ranked LSU baseball team travels to Starkville, Miss., this weekend for a three-game Southeastern Conference series against Mississippi State. Game 1 of the series is set for 6:30 p.m. Friday, Game 2 will start 3:15 p.m. Saturday and Game 3 will begin at 1:30 p.m. Sunday.
All three games can be heard on the LSU Sports Network (98.1 FM in Baton Rouge) and on the Internet at www.LSUsports.net.
Friday’s game will be televised in the Starkville area by ComCast Sports. Saturday’s game will be televised by Fox Sports Net South (Cable Ch. 26 in Baton Rouge) and Sunday’s game will be televised by the Guaranty Sports Network (Cable Ch. 10 in Baton Rouge).
LSU (17-6-1 overall, 4-2 SEC) enters Friday’s game riding a four-game win streak. The Tigers, who swept Florida last weekend, are in a four-way tie for first place in the SEC West with Mississippi State, Alabama and Ole Miss.
Mississippi State (12-7, 4-2), which lost two of three games at Vanderbilt last weekend, defeated Tennessee Tech, 18-9, Wednesday in a non-conference contest.
The Bulldogs have the second-best team ERA in the SEC at 2.80; however, MSU is last in the league in hitting with a .268 batting average.
LSU leads the SEC with a .333 batting average, but the Tigers are 11th in ERA at 4.98.
Sophomore right-hander Bo Pettit (2-0, 3.86 ERA) will start Friday’s game for LSU, marking his first SEC start since May 6, 2000, at Kentucky. Pettit, who underwent off-season shoulder surgery, earned a relief win last Sunday at Florida. He limited the Gators to two runs on six hits in 3.2 innings with no walks and three strikeouts.
Freshman left-hander Lane Mestepey (3-0, 4.33 ERA) is LSU’s starter on Saturday. Head coach Skip Bertman has yet to name his Sunday starter.
Mississippi State will counter with sophomore left-hander Joey Collums (1-1, 3.13 ERA) on Friday, freshman left-hander Paul Maholm (2-1, 1.96 ERA) on Saturday and junior right-hander Tanner Brock (2-1, 3.77 ERA) on Sunday.
LSU and Mississippi State first met in 1905, and the Bulldogs lead the series, 182-146-1. The visiting team has won the regular-season series in the past two seasons, as LSU won two of three in Starkville in 1999 and MSU captured two wins in Baton Rouge in 2000. Prior to 1999, the home team had won the series in four consecutive seasons (1995-98).
The Tigers posted a 8-8 mark against MSU in Starkville in the 1990s. LSU won two of three games at Dudy Noble Field in 1993 and 1999, and the Tigers lost two of three to the Bulldogs in 1990, 1995 and 1997. LSU also defeated MSU in Starkville in the 1995 SEC Western Division Tournament.
Bertman has a 37-34 career mark against Mississippi State during his 18-year LSU tenure.